Previous post was referring to the Blacksmith / Mining combo. Since the fortitude bonus isn’t attached to BS.

As noted above, the fortitude is a great bonus. And the 2 sockets are, in my humble opinion, quite the boon. They’re prismatic which means they can be tailored to assist in any meta requirements you might have.

And if you don’t have a lot of play time or don’t get in many groups, there are two BoP northrend sword recipes that are decent if you haven’t gotten specific quests done and/or don’t get lucky on the drops in instances. (or if you were spec’d differently while questing and got the “wrong” item)

I was Kara geared and able to be heroic capable defense-wise just by capping blacksmithing and gearing myself out from my own craft. So I can’t agree that being a BSmith is a waste.

The crab and the hare are nice.. AND with sockets? I can get Sons of Hodir rep and get shoulder enchants (half as effective), but still I would be looking at +100 stam or so.. Dunno I have to weigh the benefits on that.

Blacksmithing is fine in its current state. It may be a little behind compared to some other professions in terms of crafter-specific equipment/enchants, but keep in mind that blacksmithing will benefit the most when epic gems for socketing will be introduced.

I’m not advocating blacksmithing as being the best profession, nor am I trying to say that alchemy is bad.

That said, I think Blizzard is trying to make all professions equally viable for every class that would *sensibly* pick up that profession. A warrior won’t gain much benefit from being a tailor, sure. But every class can benefit from being an engineer, a jewelcrafter, or even a blacksmith (even a caster could theoretically be a blacksmith and enjoy the added sockets).
It’s really just a matter of working what you currently have. Each profession offers its own distinct bonus. My warrior has been a blacksmith since level 5 and I’m glad I never got rid of it.

Good article — a couple of comments.

Re: Mining – One big benefit to being a maxed out miner is titansteel. I’ve sold my CD on this for 50g or more every time that I’ve decided not to use it myself. This may be an early effect which is not experienced once more miners are maxed but it’s a handly little boost in daily gold right now. Also, it is really, really easy to max mining. I did it after dedicating a few hours to it at level 73.

Re: The comment that BS isn’t really worth rolling now (Tankette). I have to respectfully disagree on this one. As I’m leveling up my warrior tank, I’m making new plate gear which is as good, if not better than anything that is loading in instances…..and when I arrive at 80, I’ve got good entry level epics that are available to me, including the Titansteel Shield wall which has great defense for putting you over the 540 hurdle. Is it the best for top-end raid readiness….no, probably not. But then again, we don’t know what BOP patterns may be added in the next patch. The BS-only sockets are also very win. Got nice new loot that will drop you below the defense hurdle…bam, you just got 2 new sockets to play with. Need more stam, or avoidance, or whatever… The benefit to these isn’t the sheer amount of contribution, but the flexibility of it. Think of it this way: It is a blacksmith only enchant that you may enchant as you wish that stacks with other enchants to the same piece of eq. It is so money…it doesn’t even know it.

Blacksmithing is pathetically easy to push up to 440, which is when you get to build all the important pieces (Titansteel, etc)
Tailoring is harder to push up in WotLK than Blacksmithing.

I haven’t looked at the Wrath flask recipes… it could be that they are easier to make than farming Fel Lotus for BC flasks was, which might explain the less-than-overwhelming upgrade. *shrugs*